Starlight
by Obscure Soul
Summary: Written for XTimeGirlX's songfic competition. Rated T for slight use of language. Thoughts and feelings of Gene and Alex as they part, glimpse flashbacks and after Alex enters the pub.Some Galex. I'm rubbish at summaries. Please R&R!


**Starlight**

**A/N: This is for XTimeGirlX's songfic competition. The song is by Muse, the greatest ever English rock band, in my opinion. If you don't know it, I suggest you check it out. It's only my second Ashes fic and is the result of boredom from being stuck at home all week, waiting for somebody to tell me what's wrong with me, other than there's something up with my head. It starts of kind of angsty and is sort of the thoughts and feelings of Gene and Alex, but it ends up being AU Galex. Also un-beta'd, so all mistakes are my own. Please bear with it =]**

_Far away_

_This ship is taking me far away_

_Far away from the memories_

_Of the people who care if I live or die_

As she saw the time on Jim's watch, it all clicked. She wasn't going home. And she'd known that for some time now. She would never see her baby girl again.

And that broke her heart.

_Starlight_

_I will be chasing the starlight_

_Until the end of my life_

_I don't know if it's worth it anymore_

She pleaded and pleaded with him to stay. If she couldn't have Molly, then why couldn't she bloody well have Gene either? It just wasn't fair.

So she walked away, the taste of his lips still on hers; torturing her.

Why didn't he call her back?

And suddenly, she knew that the pub would be no heaven for her.

She knew that the afterlife would not be worth living if the two people she cared about most were too far out of her reach. Oh, the irony.

_Hold you in my arms_

_I just wanted to hold you in my arms._

His heart sank lower with every step away from her she took.

He would never see her again.

And all he had to cherish was an epaulette number and a bittersweet, first, but last, kiss.

It took every ounce of strength he had not to go running after her and sweep her up in his arms.

Every ounce of self-control in his body not to beg her to stay; to tell her that he needed her here, with him.

To tell her that he loved her.

_My life_

_You electrify my life_

From the minute he first saw her warrant card, he knew she was different. She was a posh tart with a head full of brains and the common sense of a grain weevil. Made for a damn good copper, it transpired.

The fought and argued like cat and dog. They solved cases and drank together afterwards; spending hours that they didn't know were precious together in Luigi's. The wine and food were not that good, but Gene thought that the company definitely made up for it.

It was after pulling her out of the Cales' freezer that he realised he was in love with her. It was an alien feeling, but one that would only see to his heart being broken.

But they were Hunt and Drake. The Guv and his Bolly. Unbreakable.

Or so he thought.

_Let's conspire to ignite_

_All the souls that would die just to feel alive_

During everything surrounding Operation Rose, before the King Douglas Lane job, she'd been the only one he could rely on.

He found out Mac was corrupted and hadn't wanted to drag her in.

Boy, was he glad she got involved.

All those whispers going around the station about them and what they got up to, in what they thought was a bad ruse.

How he had wished that was what they were doing.

He didn't think he would've coped very well if he had been on his own throughout the ordeal.

Nor when they uncovered Chris as their leak.

They might have made it.

Then Jeanette got involved.

_I'll never let you go_

_If you promise not to fade away_

_Never fade away_

He listened to her lies and set himself up for a world of hurt.

Alex knew too much about the King Douglas job. So he asked for the truth. Corruption might've hurt him. But the real truth, the one she gave him, hurt him more than corruption ever would. He thought she lied to him.

And it hurt like a bitch.

So he suspended her. Confiscated her warrant. Swore to kill her.

And still, she showed up.

He heard that Boris Johnson say that she couldn't be corrupted and it brought a sense of relief over him. But it was coupled with an overwhelming sense of guilt. The most guilt he'd ever felt.

Until he shot her.

Oh, how his world came crashing down.

_Our hopes and expectations_

_Black holes and revelations_

After she woke up, he hadn't expected them to go straight back to the connection they had before. Hell, he was grateful that she was even talking to him!

But Jim Keats ruined their precariously balanced relationship once and for all.

He broke the unbreakable.

He didn't like the fact that Jim and Alex got on so well. And it wasn't just jealousy. He wouldn't trust Jim as far as he could throw him (and he wanted to throw him. So hard. Into a brick wall, preferably).

Alex started asking questions about Sam.

So he used the five rules of dodgeball to evade her questions. (Dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge, in case you were wondering).

If he'd just given her a straight answer, then maybe things would be different.

Maybe she'd still be with him.

But he hadn't, they weren't and she wasn't.

Burning Tyler's jacket also didn't help.

He knew Keats had put her up to this, so he got rid of the evidence.

It transpired she'd taken a whole different thing for 'evidence'.

One that lost him his team

_Our hopes and expectations_

_Black holes and revelations_

Looking back on it, she should've trusted him. When had he ever given her cause not to before?

Sam had been his friend.

She should've known Gene would never kill him. But Jim had been planting seeds of doubt in her head about it. All Alex wanted was a confirmation that he didn't kill Sam.

That's why she did it.

That's why she stole from and lied to the man she loved.

He hadn't done it. Jim was trying to lure her away from him. He was some kind of devil's agent and Gene was some sort of angel, meant to rescue the dead coppers sent to his world, prepare them, and then send them off to heaven.

She'd been living in a twisted fairytale all this time.

_Hold you in my arms_

_I just wanted to hold you in my arms._

It just wasn't fair. All this time she'd been fighting to get back to Molly when she'd never stood a chance.

There were so many things she would miss.

Molly growing up.

Getting her first boyfriend

Getting her heart broken for the first time.

Her prom.

Her falling in love and getting married.

Having kids.

All Alex wanted to do was give her one last hug and one last kiss. To tell her one last time that she loved her.

But she couldn't.

_Far away_

_This ship is taking me far away_

_Far away from the memories_

_Of the people who care if I live or die_

He turned his back on the pub, knowing that he'd never see his 'A-team' again. They were the best he'd ever had. And he knew that, in the morning...

They'd all be forgotten.

_I'll never let you go_

_If you promise not to fade away_

_Never fade away_

So Alex sat in the pub, day after day, with a bottle of cheap wine and two glasses; one full, one always empty. She had many people offer to join her, to start with, but she waved them away.

She knew he'd never come

But that didn't stop her hoping.

_Our hopes and expectations_

_Black holes and revelations_

One year later, on a crisp Monday morning, DCI Gene Hunt strode into Scotland Yard. Six months ago, he'd been offered the post there and he took it. Because there was something that made him need to leave Fenchurch. So he did. He took Bammo, Terry and Poirot with him, too.

But on this crisp Monday morning, Gene walked into his office to find a plain white envelope sitting on his desk, with his name on it in neat writing.

It told him, in short, that the Met was no longer a place for washed up old coppers like him and that he was fired. It suggested that he take a trip to the pub.

Upon reading that line, it all came flooding back.

So, without further delay, he quickly left Scotland Yard, jumped in his silver Mercedes, and set course for Manchester.

_Our hopes and expectations_

_Black holes and revelations_

The door opened and Alex Drake looked up morosely. Countless days of sitting, drinking and waiting for him.

She felt like giving up.

She knew he would never come anyway.

The pub fell silent as he stepped over the threshold and silently surveyed the pub with eyes that were, for once, so full of emotion.

They all knew who he was looking for.

He fixed her with a piercing look, critically looking her up and down, noting every change. She was thinner, her hair was limp, her face pale. She looked tired. But when she saw him, all of that was swept away. It was like she'd been in monochrome, then burst into colour as her face lit up upon seeing him.

He held his arms open to her, one eyebrow arched.

_Hold you in my arms_

Everything felt right again.

_I just wanted to hold you in my arms._

Because the Guv had his Bolly where she was always meant to be.

_I just wanted to hold._

In his arms.


End file.
